A Coptic Orthodox Christian congregation has a meal together after the holy mass as a sign of love and communion. In in the early days a complete meal was offered after the mass. At the present time, the Korban, a small round loaf of bread has been substituted for the meal. The Korban is stamped with the “Trisagin” (the triple invocation of God as holy) and with crosses and has the same wheat flour, water and yeast only. The bread is leavened and is baked unsalted. The central part of the Korban is called “Despatikon” meaning “Lordly” and around the Despatikon twelve crosses referring to the twelve disciples. The Despatikon also is pierced with five holes referring to the spear and nails which Christ suffered. The word “Agios” is written in three times on the periphery of the Despatikon which represents the “Holy Trinity”.
Prior art references that relate to imprinting dough with relatively complex patterns engraved on a surface disposed on a rotary device include: U.S. Pat. Nos. 177,319, 4,276,800, 5,162,119, 5,388,489, 7,845,928, US 20100159095 and US20120251690. These devices are referred to in the art as rotary cutters which are configured to cut and imprint the dough.
Imprinting this pattern on dough and creating the finished Korban presents a number of challenges not addressed by the prior art. The pattern on the Korban loaf contains raised areas, such as the images of some of the crosses and the Coptic symbols and letters, alongside sunken areas; for example in some of the border outline areas and some of the cross images. The overall pattern must be configured in a way that the dough flows smoothly between the raised and sunken areas on the emboss pattern so that not to disrupt the imprinted images on the Korban. Furthermore, the dough must be pierced through to produce the five holes representing the spear and nails that pierced Christ. Simultaneously, the loaf needs to be cut out of a sheet of dough and areas provided for the air to escape so to prevent air from disrupting the dough from rising to the full loaf. Also, the type of dough that contains only flour water and yeast tends to be particularly unstable if left unbaked for long periods of time.